page_title: Sherry Edmundson Fry
section_title: Statue of Mahaska
hierarchical_section_title: Sherry Edmundson Fry / Statue of Mahaska
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: annalsofiowa09howe_0 (find matches) Title: Annals of Iowa Year: 1909 (1900s) Authors: Howe, Samuel Storrs, 1808-1888 Parvin, Theodore Sutton, 1817-1901 Lloyd, Frederick Huff, Sanford W Aldrich, Charles, 1828-1908 Harlan, Edgar Rubey, 1869-1941 Iowa. Division of Historical Museum and Archives State Historical Society of Iowa Iowa. Historical Dept Iowa. Historical, Memorial, and Art Dept Subjects: Publisher: (Des Moines, etc., Iowa State Historical Dept., Division of Historical Museum and Archives, etc.) Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: s seven and one-half feet inheight, on a pedestal of granite of about the same height, whichbears four bronze tablets whose inscriptions read as follows: ON THE FRONT OR WEST TABLET. MAHASKA. ON SOUTH TABLET. Mahaska, for whom Mahaska county was named, was chief ofthe loway tribe of Indians. He lived at peace with thewhite man and was slain by an Indian in 1834, at theage of fifty years, in what is now Cass county,Iowa. ON EAST TABLET. Presented to the city of Oskaloosa by James Depew Edmund&lt;son, in memory of his father, William Edmundson, whosettled in Iowa in 1836, and who as sheriff under ap-pointment by the territorial legislature, hadcharge of the organization of Mahaskacounty, which was completed on the 13thday of May, 1844. ON NORTH TABLET. The loways, a powerful tribe of Indians for which the Stateof Iowa was named, at one time inhabited the south-eastern portion of the territory which now constitutesthe State of Iowa, and which includes in itsborders the county of Mahaska. Text Appearing After Image: Statue of Mahaska, at Oskaloosa. Iowa. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 147 The statue was niodeh^d by Mr. Sherry K. Prye, a youngIowa sculptor then residin«»- in Paris. The model in clay wonfor tlie sculptor honorable mention when exhibited in theParis Salon. The statue in bronze was also exhibited in theSalon of 1908, winning- for the sculptor a gold medal andmembership in the American Academy at Rome. At the dedication, lion. J. F. Lacey, in the principal addresssaid: The Iowa Indians, whose name first appears in Lewis andClarks journals as Ayauway, occupied this fertile and lovelyland. Among the chiefs was Mahaska, a splendid specimenof mental and physical manhood, six feet and two inchestall. Mahaska realized the power of the white people and thenecessity of accepting the new order of things that the estab-lishment of the republic had brought about. He took pridein the fact that he was guiltless of any white mans blood,and it was only to avenge the wanton murder of his own fatherthat he to Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Sherry Edmundson Fry was an American sculptor, who also played a prominent role in U.S. Army camouflage during World War I.
context_section_description: As Fry's reputation increased, so did his opportunities for commissioned sculpture, especially commemorative statues, fountains and reliefs. His earliest public commission was a bronze statue of Mahaska, the 19th-century leader of a Native American tribe called the Ioway. Recently restored, it still stands on its pedestal in the town square of Oskaloosa, which is the county seat of Mahaska County, Iowa, in the southeastern section of the state. At the right of the base is the artist's signature "S.E. Fry, 1907".
  When he accepted the Mahaska commission in 1906, Fry was living in Paris. He returned to Iowa the following summer to make preparatory drawings of Meskwaki at the nearby Settlement at Tama, Iowa, and to collect Indian artifacts and other reference materials. Returning to Paris, he began on a clay scale model, which he first showed at the Paris Salon in 1907. A year later, he exhibited the final full-sized sculpture, for which he was awarded the Prix de Rome. Soon after, it was shipped to the U.S., and arrived in Oskaloosa by railroad in September. The formal dedication of the statue, which was attended by a crowd of about 12,000 people, was held on May 12, 1909.
caption: Fry's bronze sculpture of Mahaska
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